East Whins Eco Village, John Gilbert Architects

Nestled in spectacular natural surroundings, this innovative eco development designed by John Gilbert Architects forms an extension to the Findhorn Foundation community. Lying to the South of the Moray Firth, it is screened by sand dunes and an impressive array of evergreen trees. The challenge for the design team was to produce housing that enables a communal, environmental, and respectful way of life for its residents, whilst maintaining the peaceful and tranquil landscape.

As a photographer the first thing that I noticed was how the colour scheme complimented the natural surroundings. Characterizing the development without being overpowering, the colourful Scottish Larch cladding gives a sense of vibrancy to the development when picked out here by the low winter sun.

This is an innovative project of 25 homes, with a host of environmental attributes, sun spaces, communal laundry, heat recovery systems and solar panels throughout. The community exports surplus power generated from wind turbines to the National Grid, hence the development has a zero carbon footprint, and has already received a number of design awards.